Manchester School Board Wants All Building Projects on Fall Referendum

MANCHESTER — — The board of education on Monday rejected a special committee's recommendation to place only one of three proposed school building projects on a fall referendum.

Instead, the board voted unanimously to recommend to the board of directors that spending proposals for the creation of a new fifth- and sixth-grade academy, along with construction and renovation of two elementary schools, be placed before voters in November.

The school board also voted in the same motion to request a joint meeting with directors to discuss the issue.

The School Modernization and Reinvestment Team Revisited, or SMARTR, has recommended, and the school board has approved, plans to reconfigure elementary schools into a kindergarten to fourth-grade model and to establish a fifth- and sixth-grade academy combining Bennet Academy with the vacant Cheney Building.

Architectual firms are working on detailed designs and cost estimates for the new academy and for a "like new" renovation of Robertson Elementary School and construction of a new Washington Elementary School.

But board member Michael Crockett, who also chairs the SMARTR panel, told the school board Monday that at a meeting last week, the panel recommended that only the Cheney/Bennet project be placed on a fall referendum. The panel comprises members of both the boards of education and directors, along with residents.

The fifth- and sixth-grade academy is the "cornerstone" of the proposals, Crockett said. Plans for Washington and Robertson schools are based on kindergarten to fourth-grade enrollments, but if the Bennet/Cheney project is not approved, fifth-graders would remain in those schools.

The SMARTR panel concluded that questions about state reimbursement for the elementary school projects cannot be adequately answered until the fifth- and sixth-grade academy is approved. The state bases its reimbursment rate in large part on gross square footage and longterm projected enrollment, and there is a so-called "sweet spot" that brings maximum reimbursement for the right combination of those two elements.

So the SMARTR panel agreed, Crockett said, that the process should be slowed — that the Cheney/Bennet project should go forward for a fall referendum and the two other projects be taken up in the future, possibly in a spring referendum.

The likelihood of voters approving money for all three projects at once also has been a concern. Rough estimates show the net cost to local taxpayers for all three projects would be about $37.5 million. At the SMARTR panel's April 17 meeting, Crockett had "wondered if a referendum including all three projects would be too expensive to pass and asked what others thought about possibly presenting Cheney this year and then next year another building," according to meeting minutes.

But school board members said repairs and renovations to Robertson and Washington schools have been board priorities and should not be delayed. Crockett answered that addressing critical repairs was not part of SMARTR's charge.

But in the end, board members decided that it would be best to reaffirm the board's stance, discuss the issue with directors and come up with a plan to move forward.